Your point about the railroads is valid in some ways, but there is a major problem with it: How many of these railroads were constructed using enormous government resources as well as the government's power of eminent domain to forcibly seize private property from its rightful owners?
In terms of privately-owned toll roads and their financial stability ... Did you ever wonder why most of the investors that purchased the long-term leases on these toll roads were foreign companies? It's because institutional investors here in the U.S. were too smart to get involved in them. Having the governor of Indiana running around highlighting his credentials as a smart leader by pointing out how badly he screwed the new "owner" of the Indiana Turnpike makes that point clear.
No; there were many tollways, in fact. One of the more poignant ones was the Middlesex and Essex Turnpike in New Jersey, which got converted into the Pennsylvania Railroad’s main line (today’s Northeast Corridor). Many toll bridges too, never mind tolled ferries.
International companies took over government toll roads here because of the bidding process that excluded domestic companies, never mind the regulatory bias against domestic companies. When the government controls the playing field, they tend to play favorites. Same goes for commuter rail and transit bus contracts, which favor foreign companies also.